Houston says petition over feeding homeless is too late

Supporters wanted measure put on ballot

By Chris Moran

Updated 5:20 am, Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Activists seeking to repeal a new law requiring City Hall's permission to serve charitable meals on city-owned land turned in 34,000 petition signatures on Monday asking that the issue be put to voters in November.

Despite the passion surrounding the issue from feeding groups, clergy and others who decried the ordinance as the criminalization of charity, City Attorney David Feldman said it was too late to get the issue on the ballot.

"This ordinance is dead. It's just a matter of how hard and how much political capital will City Council spend to fight the people," Kubosh said at a news conference in the City Hall rotunda.

The standoff sets the stage for a replay of the legal battle set off by the petition that called for the November 2010 election that outlawed the use of red-light cameras in Houston. Kubosh was also a key player in that battle.

In that case, the election went forward but a federal judge later invalidated it because the petition was turned in too late. However, the ruling is no longer in effect, with both sides claiming victory. Feldman says the legal principles embodied in the court ruling still apply, while attorney Randall Kallinen, who sides with Kubosh, says they don't.

Kubosh argued Monday, as he did in 2010, that a deadline does not apply to his petition drive because it seeks a charter amendment - a change to what amounts to the city's constitution - rather than to repeal a City Council ordinance.

Virtually impossible?

Even were Kubosh to prevail in that argument, Feldman said, it is virtually impossible for the proposition to be placed on the presidential election ballot. Council faces a deadline under state law of Aug. 20 for placing items on the Nov. 6 ballot.

City Secretary Anna Russell said Monday that it generally takes her office two weeks or more to count and validate so many petition signatures before they can go to council. Because the Texas Open Meetings Act requires a 72-hour advance notice of a government meeting, her office would have to finish the job in four days to provide for proper notice.

"Even under the best of circumstances I don't see how in the world that could be done," Feldman said.

Regardless of the legal outcome, Monday's delivery of several boxes full of displeasure over the council's April adoption of the feeding ordinance revives one of the year's most contentious issues at City Hall.

The measure requires property owners' advance written permission for the charitable feeding of more than five people. The petition seeks to overturn the requirement only on city-owned land, not on private property.

"The people of the city of Houston will decide whether or not the city of Houston will remain charitable, like it has for 200 years, or become the Scrooge of the South," Kallinen said.

Giant mailing error

The petition drive collected the signatures despite a mailing error that resulted in more than 11,000 petitions being returned as undeliverable, a long stretch of rain that kept signature gatherers off the streets and a late May primary election that consumed many political volunteer resources, Kubosh said.

"Are we late? Yes. Does council have the ability to do it if they wanted to? Absolutely," Kubosh said.

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